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Wacker Drive Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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Client
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"Consider
the different contexts addressed so handsomely by the twin faces of 333
W. Wacker Drive, the 1983 office building by New York City architects
Kohn Pedersen Fox. A graceful arc of green glass makes a sculptural
statement that works in the wide-open context of the Wacker Drive river
corridor; meanwhile, the building's other facade, which is sliced and
notched, suits the grittier, more confined district of the Loop. Not
only that, the color of the glassy, 36-story tower blends beautifully
with its classically influenced stone base." Blair Kamin, Architecture Critic,Chicago Tribune This landmark building creates a dialogue between figural and abstract expression. In one sense, it can be viewed as a classical composition of three parts: base, middle and top. Simultaneously, it can be seen as an abstract composition, the architectural equivalent of a Brancusi sculpture. The building is located at a bend in the Chicago River, on the only triangular site in Chicago’s grid. While monolithic in volume, it presents two contrasting faces: one is faceted and addresses the city; the other is curved and echoes the river’s geometry. The curving face is made more dynamic by the linear slice carved from the upper floors. The building’s base is expressed as a weighty mass of stone rooted to the earth, in contrast to the lightness of glass volume above. Ironically, the building engages its context by contrasting its sculptural, horizontally-striated glass body with the massiveness of the stone buildings that surround it.
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